If there's one advantage paper, magazines, and softcover books have over high tech alternatives it's that they aren't rigid and can take a little bending here and there. Flexible batteries like this one might help even the score.

Created by Professor Keon Jae Lee at the Korean Advanced Institute Of Science And Technology, this flexible lithium-ion battery can be bent pretty far back and keep the power coming throughout the ordeal. In fact, as the clip with the voltmeter shows, bending doesn't affect the battery's performance at all. This is precisely what you'd need for a flexible e-reader, or a flexible phone.

Graphene batteries also have the potential to come in bendable varieties, and also have the potential to be super powerful. That said, lithium-ion batteries are the standard right now, and this is a working prototype, so you could see that tech applied soon. It might not be long until you're swatting flies with a rolled up computer. [TechCrunch]